Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None

Much like the CSI series, the Agatha Christie mystery adaptations are intended as much for non-gamers as the hardcore adventure fan. And for good reason: sales of the Queen of Crime's many novels number in the billions worldwide, which is a little bigger than the adventure community the last time I checked. So the decision by JoWood/The Adventure Company to port one of its Christie titles to the Wii makes sense on the surface. What makes less sense is choosing to begin with what is arguably the weakest of the three games to date, And Then There Were None. And to add insult to murder, the notable failings of the original remain intact in the conversion, while adding some new problems of its own.

In terms of content, And Then There Were None is a carbon copy of its PC predecessor. There was no visible skimping that I could discern, leaving all cutscenes, voiceovers, and gameplay unchanged, right down to the multiple endings. Strictly on the basis of porting from one platform to another, then, very little has been lost in translation apart from the inferior graphics on a bigger screen. The point-and-click controls also function simply and intuitively, effectively switching the mouse for remote with the game none the worse for wear.

Where the game does noticeably stumble, however, is its attempt to integrate some motion controls throughout. For the most part, these are limited to infrequent activities, from turning wheels to scooping powders to pumping levers. Which is good, because the motion response is atrocious, and certainly not helped by the fact that the game leaves you to stumble your way through them with no direction. Early in the game, an info screen appears that tells you certain controls will be required but not explained. Umm… well, gee, thanks for the warning. Admittedly, seeing a big splash screen with new control instructions would be a bit of an immersion killer, but no more so than seeing your cursor suddenly disappear and having to fend for yourself. This would have been forgivable, maybe even commendable, had the controls behaved naturally, but the opposite is true. Repeatedly I simulated reasonable-seeming motions for the task at hand, but only once in a while did any on-screen action result, and even then completely out of sync with my motions. Rarely did I ever distinguish a proper cause-and-effect sequence, with random gesticulations eventually winning the day.

Much worse than these sporadic activities is the one that runs all throughout the game, which is the act of opening doors. All door handles need to be turned by twisting the remote right or left, and here again the response is just plain inadequate. Never mind that there's no point in it, as you aren't shown a close-up of the handle, and see no in-game response to your actions besides the standard scene shift to the next room, making it nothing more than tedious busywork. No, the real issue is that sometimes it'll work, sometimes it won't. Wait, make that "too often" it won't. Better yet, "FAR too often" it won't. Contributing greatly to the problem is that And Then There Were None has more repetitive door-opening than any other game I can think of (unless maybe the other two Agatha Christie games). If you think this is a minor quibble blown out of proportion, think again. Taking place in a mansion as it does, the game forces you to constantly check and re-check the same rooms over and over, and by the third or fourth murder, you might be having homicidal thoughts yourself the next time the uncomfortable remote twist doesn't open a door for you. I can live with the Wii's motion controls being used as nothing more than a gimmick, but if you're going to introduce them, at least do them properly. Otherwise, see Hard Evidence for a port that doesn't trip over its own remote.

The other disappointment is that none of the game's existing weaknesses have been improved. It's a port, I know, not a remake, but the effort put into bungling the motion controls would have been far better spent enhancing the core game at least in small but useful ways. How about a zip-to map to cut down on the dreary trudging all over the island looking for arbitrary triggers, or some actual feedback to the many-part inventory combinations instead of blindly guessing your way through the forty-plus objects in your possession? If not that, maybe the ball pattern on the snooker table could change occasionally to reflect the apparently ongoing number of games being played on it. Still no? Well, at least outright errors should have been fixed, like certain hotspots being completely non-existent unless you have the correct inventory item in hand. I have played this game already, and I STILL needed to resort to a walkthrough because it didn't occur to me (again!) to try items on unhighlighted background scenery. I was… not amused. Apart from the latter issue, no single element is a big omission, but why even basic improvements to an already-underwhelming game weren't implemented ranks right up there with "whodunit" as one of the game's bigger mysteries. Keep what works, improve what doesn't. Seems a simple enough formula, but not one this game follows.

Between the identical content and missteps in the Wii-specific actions, there is no reason for anyone who's played the original to look twice at this Wii iteration. If you haven't played either version, the bigger question once again is whether or not the game itself might appeal to you, and for that I refer you to our review of the game. Unlike with CSI: Hard Evidence, however, where the choice of versions is mostly a matter of preference or utility, here I wholeheartedly recommend the older PC version for anyone considering one or the other. Unless you're really intent on squeezing some point-and-click adventuring goodness out of your console, there's simply no benefit to spending more for a lesser experience.



At the end of the day, in CSI: Hard Evidence and Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, the first PC-to-Wii conversions clearly leave something to be desired, if not for exactly the same reasons. Perhaps it's not surprising that the port pioneers reflect their inexperience, but it's here that other developers and publishers need to learn from the mistakes of those who went before them. This industry is notoriously bandwagon-driven, and it would be a shame to see other companies jump off immediately if these two falter, or alternatively, jump on blindly by simply cloning the early models for a (relatively) cheap market grab.

Love it, hate it, or straddle the middle ground of ambivalence about it, the Wii is a unique system, and any future ports should start with that perspective and build from there. Yes, it can do point-and-click, but if that's all it's doing, it's not doing much. Hard Evidence may be the better game for its caution, but kudos to And Then There Were None for at least trying to offer more. It's unfortunate that the attempt was so poorly implemented, compounded by the failure to ensure the core game itself was up to the challenge. The right mix is still out there, though, and here's hoping that the question isn't if we'll see it in a future effort, but when.